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	Podcast:		Maine Things Considered
	Episode:		Angus King Says He Doesn't Think Donald Trump Can Pardon Himself
	Category:		Government & Organizations
	Duration:		00:01:10
	Publish Date:		2018-06-04 15:31:39
	Description:		President Donald Trump has tweeted that he believes he could pardon himself under the broad Constitutional powers granted to presidents. Independent U.S. Sen. Angus King of Maine disagrees. Trump has asserted that he has the right to pardon himself, but won’t use his power to do so since he has done nothing wrong. But King says the implication that a president can never be held accountable for his or her actions is inconsistent with other powers of the Constitution. “I think it is troubling because the implication is that a president can never be held to account, and I don’t think that is how our system works,” he says. King says what Trump is asserting is like the sovereign immunity concept, where the king or queen can do no wrong, and the founding fathers rejected that principle. “The idea that you can pardon yourself and therefore can never be held to account strikes me as inconsistent with the fundamentals of the constitution,” he says. No president has ever taken such action. In
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